Two Ontario school boards will notify parents, guardians about COVID cases
Posted January 14, 2022 11:20 pm.
It appears some parents in Halton and Durham will be getting notified about positive COVID-19 cases in schools when students head back to in-person learning.
Earlier this week, the Ford government released its back-to-school plan — the Ministry of Education is only requiring schools to report COVID-19 outbreaks to Public Health Units when absenteeism rates among students and staff hit 30 per cent.
Minister Lecce said guardians of Ontario’s public school students will be able to log into a central website that has positive case information for each school. Schools will not have to report cases to their communities.
RELATED: Teachers, school boards sound alarm over Ontario’s back to school plan
While the province doesn’t require schools to let parents and guardians know if there is a positive case detected in their child’s cohort, the Halton Catholic District School Board said it will be.
In an email to parents and guardians, the board wrote in part, “we have made the decision at HCDSB that when schools receive information of a positive Rapid Antigen or PCR test, families and staff in the class/cohort will be notified.”
“As per our past practice, no personal or identifying information will be shared. Families will only be advised that their child may have been exposed to COVID-19,” it added.
The Durham District School Board shared online on Friday it will start reporting data on its online COVID-19 advisory page starting on January 19th.
Information on the Return to In-Person Learning
As a follow-up to the message shared on Wednesday evening, we are writing to share reminders and further updates that will support the return to in-person learning on Monday, January 17.
https://t.co/K4e9e0nKjI— Durham District School Board (DDSB) (@DDSBSchools) January 14, 2022
It will have four categories, including Number of Positive COVID-19 Tests Disclosed.
The DDSB also said when it becomes aware of a positive case, it will notify the school community which class the positive test result is from.
